Aregbesola Fails to Deliver Ijeshaland to APC

Governor Rauf Aregbesola failed to deliver his home base of Ijeshaland to the All Progressives Congress candidate, Gboyega Oyetola, as the opposition Peoples Democratic Party swept almost all the local councils.

The PDP won Obokun LGA by a large margin 10,859 votes to 7,229 garnered by the APC. But APC won the Ilesa East with 9790 votes. PDP got 8244 votes.

APC also lost Ilesha West LGA to PDP, getting 7251 votes to PDP’s 8286 votes.

Hpwever, the APC won Atakumosa East by polling 7073 votes to PDP’s 5218 votes. PDP snatched Atakumosa West, polling 5401 votes to APC’s 5019 votes.

The Saturday governorship election, as much as it is pivotal to the 2019 election, was also a referendum of sort on the almost eight year reign of Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola.

That his party was hammered by the opposition in his home base indicated that he has some political mending to do ahead of the 2019 election.

“This election ought to have been a walk over, except that we were dealt with in Ijeshaland”, noted one of the APC strategists in Osogbo, on Saturday morning.

Just like Aregbesola, Chief Bisi Akande also narrowly won his Ila Local government by very fewer than 200 votes. While APC got 8401 votes, the PDP made it a cheek and jowl affair, polling 8241 votes.

(NAN)